Fast Times at Denerim High
by evie vie
Summary: OMG! Alistair has dumped nerdy Amy Surana and asked snooty Elissa Cousland to the prom! Can her wacky friends help her get him back? A high school AU - every fandom needs one - for dao challenge. Chapter 2: prom dress shopping at the Wonders of Thedas!
1. Chapter 1

For this week's challenge (write an AU) at dao_challenge on LJ. It's just not fandom without a high school AU.

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It was a typical day at Denerim High, and in the cafeteria Amy Surana picked at her food morosely. She had been trying all week not to look over at the rich kids' table where her ex-boyfriend now sat, but it hadn't been working. He never looked back at her, that was for sure. And why would he? She was a bookish mage with glasses and a ponytail who played the bagpipes in the school band. He was the sweet, handsome star of the Templar sparring team. Of course it hadn't worked out.

And now he had asked that rich, snotty Elissa Cousland to prom.

Her best friend, Leliana the foreign exchange student, patted her hand. "He is not worth it, no?" she said, while a whole table of geeky freshmen boys fainted at her sexy accent. "There are other, how you say, _poissons dans la mer._"

"Not like Alistair," Amy said sadly.

"'Tis true," said Morrigan from the other end of the table where she sat reading existentialist philosophy. The goth chick was less mean to Amy than she was to anyone else, so that probably meant they were friends. Or not, you could never tell with Morrigan. "There can be no one as dim in all of Denerim. Trapped in that slab of beefcake is a mind the size of a pea."

"Did someone say slab of beefcake?" said a cheerful voice, and Zevran sat down at the table, grinning. Morrigan groaned. Leliana rolled her eyes.

Amy regarded her friend. Zevran really was attractive. Sure, he did get around, but underneath that suave lothario exterior there was a sweet and sensitive boy who just wanted to be loved. Or maybe not. Either way.

"Zevran," Amy said, "do you want to go to the prom with me?"

"I thought you would never ask," Zevran said. "Sadly, this means that I have already asked someone. I shall be attending with Laura Brosca and Ian Mahariel. Since neither of them knows I have invited the other, hijinks will most likely ensue."

"Why go in any case?" Morrigan said. "'Tis a useless overpriced ritual meant to impose traditional standards and norms on impressionable youth. I would never involve myself in such a fiasco."

A shadow fell across the table. Everyone looked up. Then further up. Sten, the biggest, tallest, most mysterious guy in school, stood there. What was he doing here? Sten never talked to anyone. But now he was looking right at Morrigan.

"Prom," said Sten.

Morrigan regarded him for a moment. "Fine," she said.

Sten grunted and moved on.

Amy sighed. "Now everyone's got a date but me!"

Zevran grinned wickedly. "You could always go with Oghren. He likes you." Across the room, Oghren, or "Big Og" as he was known on the football team, belched magnificently and wiped his face with the sleeve of the guy sitting next to him. He saw Amy looking at him and gave her a good-natured leer.

"Oh, this is useless," Amy said. "I don't want to go to the prom with anyone else, just Alistair. Ms. Wynne tells me I should just believe in myself and wonderful things will happen to me, but she's wrong. I love him so much!" She started to cry.

Morrigan patted her shoulder. "There, there," she said awkwardly.

"I have a plan," Leliana said firmly. "_Ma cherie_, we are going to help you get him back."

"How?" Amy said. "A sailing competition?"

"A ski race?" Morrigan said.

"Vast amounts of underage drinking?" Zevran said hopefully.

"All three if we have to," Leliana said. "And we're going to start with my very favorite thing in the whole world." She whipped Amy's glasses off her face. "A makeover montage!"


	2. Chapter 2

"But I don't want to be prom king!" Alistair said.

Elissa sighed. Her prom date was super-hot, athletic, and had great hair, and he really was very sweet, but quick on the uptake he was not. She'd had her eye on him since she'd transferred from Highever Prep earlier that year, and never mind that he had a girlfriend – what Elissa Cousland wants, Elissa Cousland gets.

And Elissa Cousland wanted to be prom queen. Really, really bad.

"Look," she said, tossing her long chestnut locks, "you have to be prom king. It's your destiny. Your father was prom king, your brother was prom king, and now it's your turn. If you don't do it, that snot Anora Mac Tir will be prom queen – and do you want that?"

"If it's what's best for the school –"

"Putting Anora on the papier-mache throne would be the worst thing to ever happen to this school! She's totally two-faced! She'll make fun of us all behind our backs!"

Alistair's eyebrows knitted together charmingly. "I don't know. She does wear a tiara well..."

Elissa's eyes flashed. "Remember that time her dad was out of town and she threw that party? And then he came home and she was like 'Nooo, this wasn't my idea!'"

"Well," Alistair said slowly, "when you put it that way... I guess I can do it. But I don't think I can make any of the hard decisions, like what song we should dance to."

"That's all right, dear Alistair," Elissa said. "That's what I'm here for." She grinned to herself. Everything was going according to plan!

* * *

Meanwhile, at the prom committee meeting, the big question was being decided: what would be the theme of the dance?

"Something romantic," said Lisa Aeducan. "How about 'One Perfect Rose'? Or, I don't know, 'Satinalia'? We could do an Antivan masquerade."

"I still like 'Fiesta in the Fade,'" muttered Chelsea Tabris.

"That's just awful," retorted Lisa. "That's even worse than 'Bebop in the Bannorn,' and that's saying something. Sandal, what do you think?"

"Enchantment?" Sandal said.

"Yes, but enchantment _what_?" Chelsea said. "It has to be enchantment _something_. Enchantment Under the Sea? Some Enchantment Evening?"

"Enchantment!" Sandal said.

The committee was quiet a moment.

"You know," Lisa said slowly, "that could work."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the mall, our plucky heroine and her best girlfriends were in the Wonders of Thedas checking out dresses.

"Why am I doing this again?" Amy complained. "I don't even have a date!" Leliana had done her best, but instead of turning into an unrecognizable supermodel version of herself, Amy just looked like Amy with her glasses off and her hair down, not that impressive. The makeover montage had been fun, though. It had almost gotten her mind off Alistair. Almost.

"Ah, but you will," Leliana said happily. "And if you don't, at least you'll have a gorgeous dress. Who doesn't want a gorgeous dress?"

Morrigan snorted. "Need you ask? I roll my eyes at this pointless display of crass consumerism and... oooh... shiny..."

"Leliana, stop dangling that necklace in front of her," Amy said. "You know how she gets." Leliana tossed the necklace to Morrigan, who slunk off to the counter to buy it, muttering _well, just this once _under her breath.

"Here, try these on," Leliana said, handing her a pair of dangly earrings. "You want to bring out your ears. They're so pointy and delicate!"

"No, I don't," Amy said sadly. "He dumped me because I'm an elf."

Morrigan and Leliana stared at her, aghast.

"And because I'm a mage," Amy finished. "He said people just weren't enlightened enough to accept us together and we had to move on."

"And you actually want him _back_?" Morrigan said, incredulous.

Amy regarded the yellow Tevinter dress she'd been looking at. It really was cute, even with that weird fur cape... and you know what was also cute? That redheaded guy who'd been following her around like a puppy all year. Cullen. Kind of built, too. She'd been all caught up in Alistair and hadn't given him a second thought.

"You know," she said, "you have a point. There are other _pois dans la merde_, or whatever it is Leliana said. So what kind of jewelry would you wear with... Leliana?"

But her friend had spotted something that could not be ignored and had rushed off to her greatest weakness: the shoe department. Morrigan and Amy followed her and found her staring at a (admittedly, fabulous) pair of blue satin Orlesian stiletto pumps.

"Oh. My. Maker. These shoes cost three hundred sovereigns," breathed Leliana. "Let's _get_ them!"


End file.
